LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Bolingbrook, IL
 ·AT&T Midwest
| reply to Clever_Proxy
Re: Clear in Chicago
So I'm using it now and it's definitely different then when Xohm was in town, but now it's useless. Browsing is slow and doesn't complete at times. And it's not just location I'm at right now, on my way home I tested it and made sure I was on different base stations but had the same result. So it's something in my area, maybe not Chicago as a whole.
I've tried downloading a couple files from websites and yesterday the fastest I would get was 4KB/s. Today, I started the BlackBerry desktop manager (for the drivers) and it started at 200Kb/s and now it's running at 2.8KB/s.
If this doesn't define useless I don't know what does. And the download just failed. |
|
Capt Pischar
join:2004-07-18 | reply to LineNoise
I'm located in South Naperville between Book road and 59. Right behind Neuqua HS. Looks like I may have to wait until December then for coverage in my area? Oh, I'll wait as long as it works. |
|
glamajamma
join:2009-11-07
Chicago, IL
| reply to Clever_Proxy
I just signed up for the service and I came home to realize they are having an outage. Even with 5 bars I wasn't getting decent service. I am currently setup in an area in my house that only gets three bars and it takes forever to load a speedtest much less run it. If this does not improve by Monday it goes right back to Clearwire. |
|
mierwins
join:2004-03-18
Montgomery, IL
| What a joke!
Got my cards on Friday, had 6 bars @ work and stuck at "obtaining IP". Maybe they forgot to increase their scope from the initial 10 test users. 
Get home and I'm supposed to be right in the middle of a 4G area with great coverage. Turns out I can get 2 bars right by the windows sometimes and other times it says "no networks found". Trying to connect with the two bars just gives me a "connecting to 4g" message for a bit, then reverts to 3G.
So far I've spent about 3 hours on the phone w/ techs and everyone says everything is great in Chicago and no problems. Although the last tech said he did see a few tickets out of Chicago so he thinks there might really be an issue.
How much are we getting paid for the beta testing? |
|
bradhatter
@comcast.net
| reply to Clever_Proxy
Just what is Clearwire doing differently here (US)? And why? I spent some time abroad over a year ago and used a branded Clearwire service in an apartment in Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland and was thoroughly impressed. Speeds were consistent, latency was low, and it was pretty cheap to boot.
I live in the Chicago area and was seriously considering the service, but I'm not so sure now. |
|
Clever_Proxy
join:2004-05-14
Chicago, IL
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T Midwest
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
| Well the service is brand spakin' new in this area. It might need a little time to mature. That seems to be the trend with any new service. I remember the shaky days of comcast/ATT Broadband. When I got my first cable internet connection I was plagued by horrible latency and frequent outages. I haven't had an area wide outage with my Comcast connection in a long time. I'm sure things will get better.
I guess I'm going to wait until the service matures a bit before I make any kind of jumps. I can honestly say I don't want to pay to "beta test" their network like the rest of the crowd. |
|
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Bolingbrook, IL | I agree the service is new, but it's most definitely not brand spankin' new. I was using this service over a year ago in Chicago and the build-out has been in progress since January 2007. |
|
ivisuals
@clearwire-wmx.net
| reply to Clever_Proxy
I'm on the north side of the City (Foster and Broadway). Some sites load super fast, and some are slower than dialup! I downloaded some mp3's and the speed was great, but when I go to check my gmail, it takes a minute (literally) to connect. I've continued to call tech support and have a level 2 ticket in. So far, no good.
What's really disheartening is that I also got service at my office (vicinity of Clark and Montrose). The WiMax tower is right there on top of the Public Storage building. I get 5 strong green lights, but speed is still crappy and inconsistent |
|
OakParkDH
@clearwire-wmx.net
|  reply to Clever_Proxy
Ain't life grand! |
|
|
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Bolingbrook, IL
·AT&T Midwest
| You're lucky you were able to speak with a level 2 technician. They escalated my issue to an RF Engineer who was suppose to call me back, but hasn't yet.
After calling Tuesday I noticed some improvement, but browsing was still hanging up and I'd have to disconnect and reconnect. It was working better though, I didn't have to do it anywhere near as frequently.
Today, I fired up my card and I have 1 dot lit on the connection manager. My signal is "Weak". I've also noticed that I am connecting to a different tower based on the BSID under diagnostics in the connection manager. I don't know if this is right, but I am guessing that they just shut the tower off I was connecting too. |
|
pCorrado
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to OakParkDH
said by OakParkDH :
Service is essentially useless for all but 2 days so far (I've had since day 1 11/4). First 2 days modem just scanned constantly, unable to lock on a signal. Next 2 days, worked as advertised. Since Friday at noon I have had the same .06 to .10 Mb/s DL speed as others (upload sometimes actually improves to .85 or better). Re-booting modem restores normal speeds, which for me are between 4 and 5 Mb/s but it only last a few minutes. Level 2 tech last Saturday said they were having an issue with the towers maintaining a "proper" connection with the modems. That's 5 days and no fix....if they don't have this handled by Monday, everything gets returned.
I am in Elmwood Park and having the same issue. Since about Sunday I have been experiencing very slow arrive on some websites (YouTube) and rebooting the modem corrects it for a few mintues. Maybe there is a tower problem. I plan on calling today to report my issues and hopefully get it corrected. |
|
Anonymous2
@clearwire-wmx.net
| reply to Clever_Proxy
Hello, I am also in Chicago - around North and Ashland to give you a general idea. I'm a brand new Clear customer and I've been using the 4G+ USB modem and the Unlimited 4G+ service for three days now.
I'm also experiencing the same problems as everyone else in this thread. Connection speeds are super fast for about five minutes and then everything starts to lag. The download speeds fluctuating and then pages will begin to take even 2-5 minutes to load. That is unaccceptable!!!!
I've already spoken to technical support and they had me change some settings in my browser. Even after the short call I could immediately tell that they are outsourced people that are clueless about technical issues. They're just reading troubleshooting scripts.
I have noticed that forcing my modem to connect at 3G eliminates the lagging problems. The 3G connection seems reliable and speeds stay constant, and thus far I'm pretty pleased with it.
BUT WHAT ABOUT 4G?!
Are these just growing pains? |
|
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Bolingbrook, IL | reply to Clever_Proxy
I hope they're not growing pains, I was using this back in October '08 and it was working great. This seems to be like throttling gone wrong. |
|
Anonymous2
@clearwire-wmx.net | FYI
 |
|
ivisuals
@clearwire-wmx.net
| reply to Clever_Proxy
Here I am at my office at Clark and Montros (roughly 4400 North Clark) The WiMax tower is at 4450 North Clark atop the Public Storage building. Attached is a screen grab that says it all. Good speeds if I'm downloading from Microsoft Technet (on the right). But super slow if I'm downloading from Microsoft.com. And from where I am, I could throw a pebble and hit the WiMax tower. |
|
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Bolingbrook, IL
·AT&T Midwest
2 edits | reply to Clever_Proxy
Just spent another 30 minutes on the phone to get an update on my ticket. It has not been looked it and there's a "Widespread outage". I told them that they cannot use that excuse every time I call in and that I do not accept it.
Then I asked for a supervisor because the tech just kept repeating there's a widespread outage. Couldn't confirm where, what the issues were or anything.
The supervisor tried to troubleshoot the issue, I told him I did this days ago for hours that he should review the notes and I'm not troubleshooting unless there's an engineer on the line.
He said that it's a problem that's been addressed and they'll get to it when they get to it, until then I'm out of luck.
EDIT: Just received an email from "L2Support" wanting me to disable IPv6 and change my DNS servers to opendns. I did it and we'll see what happens. I can't imagine this being a DNS issue though.
EDIT 2: Nope, still effed up |
|
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Bolingbrook, IL
·AT&T Midwest
1 edit | reply to Clever_Proxy
Things are looking better. I haven't had to disconnect this morning yet, browsing to sites is MUCH better even though the overall throughput is significantly less then when I was using it in the beginning of the year.
Let's hope it stays this way.
This is what I was getting when right out of the box on 11/3/2009.
And this is what I was getting 10/3/2008 in the SAME EXACT location I as the above speed tests.
 |
|
pcorrad
join:2009-11-13
Elmwood Park, IL
| said by LineNoise  :Things are looking better. I haven't had to disconnect this morning yet, browsing to sites is MUCH better even though the overall throughput is significantly less then when I was using it in the beginning of the year. I noticed a significant improvement as well since about 15 minutes after I called tech support last night - it was still working well this morning when I left work so I am pretty excited to get home to see if it is still resolved.
I should note that I am getting about 2.8Mbps on the DL side - which is less than my plan but waaaay better than what I was getting with DSL |
|
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Bolingbrook, IL | I just downloaded a torrent and topped out at 627Kb/s....
»cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Downloading this file it's downloading at 300kb/s |
|
xrayman
join:2008-12-09
Kansas City, MO
1 edit | LineNoise,
Is that download at 627KB/s? Big "B" bytes, not bits |
|
